Iron Prince

CAWPILE SCORE
C-7
A-5
W-6
P-8
I-8
L-6
E-8
TOTAL-6.86/10

Fun, good progression fantasy.

i feel weird about this book I feel like this book would've fared better with some better stakes. Also its weirdly disjointed, being that the whole book leads up to Rei being selected for a team but i was expecting his goal to be something a little higher up/more dire. Looking forward to see what happens next

Phew! That was long but mostly not a slog. Bryce holds the pace and weaves a nice little narrative. The world building is excellent and you cant complain about the way standard school trope has been used. Where Iron prince really shines though is the way the individual characters are handled. There is a good mix of black and white with a dash of too much niceness for my liking. If there was anything missing though, I would say it was the fights. The mechanics just did not lend themselves well to imagination and so you kind of skipped over them after a while. And if I have to nitpick, there was way too much repetition on the who growth power etc that it lost its sheen very quickly. All in all an excellent read and I highly recommend you get submerged in this world for a few days

[Series review]
In the most positive way, this series has absolutely zero business being as good as it is. An overwhelming, entertaining, unabashed guilty pleasure.

I don't read so much progression fantasy - I've read a few series throughout the years, but none I have enjoyed as much as this. There's something about the way this is written that is just such a full-hearted magic school adventure, with great friendships, cool character moments, and fun battles. It is unashamed of being completely anime-inspired and silly at times. Imagine a stripped-down version of what makes something publishable, leaning too much into the raw energy that is what you read a fantasy book for.

This is a love-it or hate-it series that to me very thoroughly outperformed its execution. I doubt people who don't really have strong opinions about books will like this, or even be interested. I could repeat the usual criticisms that everyone has for this book, but that would just dissuade people from reading it. But - do not read this if you're the type to pick apart premises and figure out how and why a fantasy world works. Just immerse yourself in the world and enjoy the ride.